Does anyone buy these?

evanjrowley 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you look at the verified hardware list for ChromeOS Flex[0], you can get an idea of what ChromeOS devices are being deployed for. Apart from education and companies that use Google Workspace, there's a lot of ChromeOS devices deployed as kiosks and call center computers. This is reflected not only in obscure documentation, but also in the marketing material[1].

The "enterprise" managability and reduced attack surface is driving Google to jack up Chromebook prices. The "Chromebook Plus" models are nearing the same price as a midrange Dell Inspiron, HP OmniBook, or Lenovo IdeaPad. You may have also noticed M4 MacBook Airs can be bought for the price of an iPhone 17, and I suspect that's partially a response from Apple to the Chromebook price increases. Buying a $600 Chromebook might have been sane for someone tired of Microsoft and not interested in a $1000 Macbook Air, but in 2025, with the Macbook Air prices going down significantly[2], Chromebooks are not as appealing to regular consumers (different story for businesses).

[0] https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?sjid...

[1] https://chromeos.google/business-solutions/use-case/contact-...

[2] https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-m4-macbook-air-is-selling-...

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makeitdouble 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For people complaining about battery control and android emulation on linux, ChromeOS is a boon.

You effectively get an actual Linux distro + most of android, with a side of Chrome. It's way closer to "a real computer" than an iPad for instance, and only loses to the Surface Pro/Z13 line in term of versatility IMHO.

It really wasn't bad, my only deal breakers were keyboard remapping being non existent and the bluetooth stack being flaky.

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rossy 13 hours ago | parent [-]

I got a ChromeOS device a few years ago and it was great. I think they get an underserved bad reputation from being the locked-down devices you're forced to use in schools, but a personal ChromeOS device is a capable computer that can run any Android app or desktop Linux app.

Though having said that, in the past year I've replaced ChromeOS with desktop Linux (postmarketOS) and I love it even more now. 4GB of RAM was a bit slim for running everything in micro-VMs for "security," which is what ChromeOS does. I've had no trouble with battery life or Android emulation (Waydroid) since switching.

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pjmlp 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Not really any, Crostini has plenty of restrictions.

Cool if one wants to CLI stuff alongside Web and Android apps, but that is as far as it goes for GNU/Linux, with many yes but.

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/1792b43f...

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rossy 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Sorry, but "CLI stuff" is not "as far as it goes" with desktop Linux apps on ChromeOS. ChromeOS provides Wayland and PulseAudio servers to the apps as well so GUI and audio works too. It even synchronises file associations and installs a ChromeOS-like GTK theme into the container. The Linux GUI apps I had installed back when I used it felt completely native.

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pjmlp 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Without hardware acceleration and sound issues depending on the model, that is why I linked the page, as I was expecting such reply.

	▲	rossy 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It worked on my device. The page you linked looks very outdated and doesn't have my device's board or any device made in the past 5 years. The lists of unsupported devices also look pretty reasonable - old kernels, CPUs that don't support virtualisation and 32-bit ARM. Since modern ChromeOS uses the same virtualisation to run Android apps, I doubt there's a modern device where it doesn't work.

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stusmall 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

ChromeOS is popular in schools and for extremely locked down, managed corporate devices.

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oldpersonintx2 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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